The present invention broadly relates to winding apparatus and, more specifically, pertains to a new and improved construction of an apparatus for aligning a strap unwound from a roll or the like with a guide member or take-up or winding member.
Generally speaking, the apparatus of the present invention comprises a guide arranged between the roll and the guide member or take-up or winding member and aligned with such guide member or take-up or winding member for guiding the strap into a position rotated or turned out of the plane of motion of the strap. The guide comprises a guidance gap for the strap and which gap extends substantially at a right angle to the plane of motion of the strap.
An apparatus of this type is known from the British Pat. No. 1,068,800, published May 17, 1967, in which a winding or partitioning strap, also called a separator strap, unwinding from a supply roll is first conducted around a stationarily arranged deflection roll before it passes through an also stationary guide which rotates the strap through approximately 90.degree. out of the plane of motion of the strap. During unwinding of the strap from the stationarily arranged supply roll, the diameter of the supply roll diminishes with the result that the direction of motion of the strap from its position of departure from the supply roll to the deflection roll changes. This change in direction has no effect upon the direction of motion of the strap moving toward the guide only because the strap is guided between the supply roll and the guide over a deflection roll, as already mentioned.
A similar apparatus is known from the Japanese Patent Application No. 56-156199, published under the No. 58-59148 on Apr. 8, 1983 (cf. also Patent Abstracts of Japan, Volume 7, No. 149, [M-225] [1294] of July 30, 1983). In this apparatus, too, the guide formed by two stationarily arranged rollers is preceded by an also stationarily arranged deflection roll over which the strap runs after being unwound from a supply roll. A corresponding amount of space is required for providing this supplementary deflection roll.